By Cordelia Lynn
3 September – 3 October 2015
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre
The story of a young girl trapped in an increasingly tiny world.
In the beginning was the mattress.
Gradually, other little changes – more bolts on the front door; the gun; the locked cupboard. And she knew in her heart that change was bad. The story of a young girl trapped in an increasingly tiny world.
Based on a true story.
Conceived and developed by Desara Bosnja and 1989 Productions.
Design by Ana Inés Jabares Pita, lighting by Oliver Fenwick and sound by David McSeveney.
Cast includes David Mumeni & Katie West
Reviews for Lela & Co:
Dominic Maxwell
‘one of the most powerful 90 minutes I’ve spent in a theatre’
‘An extraordinary Royal Court debut from both Lynn and Christian’ – 5 stars
Lyn Gardner
‘Katie West plays Lela with a heartbreaking chattiness, pinning us with her open gaze as she leads us into the dark heart of the story’
‘an evening in which form and content are married to offer a harrowing, astringent but surprisingly playful critique of war, and the violence of patriarchy and capitalism’ – 4 stars
Matt Trueman
‘Violence is represented with admirable restraint and responsibility. If anything it gains from going unseen’
‘Mumeni […] controls the space, gliding through the audience in his game-show gold suit. Still and confident, he commands our attention’ – 4 stars
Aleks Sierz
‘one of the most powerful plays I’ve ever seen’
‘it grabs you by the throat and then it shakes you almost senseless’
‘a theatrical tour de force’ – 5 stars
Henry Hitchings
‘speaks about violence with an unsettling vividness’
‘Jude Christian’s multi-sensory production is deliberately jarring – never more so than when it plunges us into darknes’ – 3 stars
Andrzej Lukowski
‘It’s hard to work out whether Cordelia Lynn’s ‘Lela & Co’ is incredibly timely, or if we as a species are so universally awful that it would always feel relevant. But it certainly strikes a chord during a month defined by tremendous civilian suffering.’ – 3 stars
